


No. 15 Possession

by Onehelluvapilot



Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Supernatural (TV) Fusion, Episode: s04e09 Lancelot du Lac, Gen, Hurt No Comfort, Sad, Sad Ending, Whumptober 2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-15
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27025063
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Onehelluvapilot/pseuds/Onehelluvapilot
Summary: Lancelot's back from the dead, but is he really?
Relationships: Lancelot & Merlin (Merlin), Lancelot & Percival (Merlin), Merlin & Percival (Merlin)
Series: Whumptober 2020 [16]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1952440
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	No. 15 Possession

**Author's Note:**

> Idk why I continuously decide to break my own heart with writing adaptations of The Darkest Hour and Lancelot du Lac. Like, I could have used Magical Healing as the prompt instead and written something soft and filled with comfort, or even have used Possession but not made it this angsty. Sorry, I guess? This one isn't referenced in the other works in the series at all, so you can totally skip it if you want.

“That’s not Lancelot,” Merlin announced to Gaius the night after the hunter had returned.

“I share your concern, but we ran him through every test in the book, and he passed all of them,” the physician replied. “He’s not a shapeshifter, ghoul, or possessed by a demon.

“Gaius, he forgot about my powers,” Merlin said, lowering his voice even though they were already alone in the infirmary. After all, not-Lancelot was sleeping in one of the rooms just off of it. “Lancelot, the real Lancelot, would never do that. And his story doesn’t make sense. Even if something could pull a soul down from heaven, we burned his body. He shouldn’t be here.”

“Well, it won’t hurt to keep an eye on him. I’ll look through the books again, see if there’s anything we might be missing.”

The next day, they found a spell that could check if Lancelot had a soul. The only problem was that it required Merlin to use his powers, which meant that they couldn't go to Arthur with the result. Which was that Lancelot, or whatever he was, was soulless.

He didn't act like it though. In fact, he acted like his usual kind and empathetic self, except for the fact that he no longer helped Merlin cover up his powers or come up with excuses like he used to. The others all insisted that he didn't need to help out with chores around the bunker so soon after being brought back from the dead, but he did his fair share anyway. 

"Hey, I think I've found a ghost hunt not far from here," Percival announced one day at lunch. "Do you want to come with me to take care of it, Lance? It seems decently easy, so I thought it might be a good way to ease you back into hunting."

"Sure, that sounds good," he agreed.

"I'll come too!" Merlin piped up.

"I'm sure we don't really need three people for a ghost hunt," Percival replied.

"Well I could use the practice too. Arthur's always telling me that I'm a terrible shot, so this way I could get some practice with the rock salt shotgun."

"Don't listen to him. You're a fine shot and we'd be happy to have you along," Lancelot agreed. Merlin wished he could find that encouraging, but as it was, he was just suspicious. He kept a close eye on him as they investigated the haunted house, and doubly so that night when they went to burn the bones.

Standing over the open grave with a fire in it beside Lancelot, whose body they had burned not six months previously, was an odd experience. His gaze became fixed to the flames, remembering how they had licked and caught on his friend's curly hair before engulfing him completely. Transfixed as he was, Merlin barely noticed when the living Lancelot next to him moved. He finally looked up just in time to see that the hunters eyes were completely white before his attention was pulled away by Percival being pushed into the burning grave.

"No!" He shouted, and instinctively used his power to fling not-Lancelot away. His body crumpled as it hit one of the nearby gravestones. "Percival!" He quickly turned around and dropped to his stomach to reach down and yank his other friend from the grave with strength that was partially his own and partially his magic. If the larger hunter realized that he shouldn't have been able to pull him up as easily as he did, he didn't say anything. More likely, he was distracted by the pain of burnt feet from where he'd fallen through the skeleton's ribcage and the fact that his best friend had just tried to kill him. More focused on the latter, it seemed, he crawled over towards where Lancelot had collapsed. His head was cracked open on the tombstone, but instead of blood, the injury just revealed… straw. One of his eyes had fallen closed, but the other was still that ghostly white.

"No no no no no," Percival babbled, pulling Lancelot towards him. Merlin abruptly realized that as much as he was hurting at "Lancelot's" second death, it was worse for Percy. The hunter hadn't been expecting it like he had, not having known that what came back from the dead wasn't really their friend. "He isn't breathing, what, what happened, I don't understand. He can't be dead, not again."

"He wasn't even alive," Merlin explained, struggling to get the words out through the tightness in his throat as he knelt down beside them. "Gauis told me about this, suspected it might be the case." He parted Lancelot's hair gently to reveal the break in his skull and the straw within. "He's a twig and twine doll. It's a way that witches can sort of bring someone back from the dead and control them. Normally it requires their heart to be taken out and placed into the doll, which is why we didn't think of it earlier, but Morgana must be powerful enough to do it without that."

"How do you know it's Morgana?"

"Who else would go to all this trouble just to try to kill one of us? And no other witch would know Lancelot well enough to make this accurate of a doll of him."

"So it wasn't… he never really came back?" Percival asked, his voice disturbingly small for someone his size.

"No. I wish he had too, more than anything." A sob caught in his throat. "I miss him."

They stayed there cradling Lancelot's body as it began to dissolve back to twigs and twine. At least they wouldn't have to burn him twice.


End file.
